Angel of Mine
by Lulubird
Summary: Nicole didn't want to go to Purgatory. She was perfectly content guiding mortals in New York City. But sent to Purgatory she has been, and with the mission to protect the only human who can tip the balance of good and evil in a cosmic war that has been raging for centuries. And that is how she has found herself falling in love with Waverly Earp. GuardianAngel!Haught and WayHaught
1. Prologue

**A/N: This will be a canon+ GuardianAngel!Haught, Demon!Waverly, Wayhaught and EarpSisters story. After this prologue which sets the scene, it will follow canon scenes up until the season finale, at which point it will become original (and terribly exciting!).**

 **I love to hear feedback, thoughts, theories and advice to please take the time to leave a review. It's very much appreciated.**

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 **PROLOGUE**

Five people sat at tables inside the dimly lit diner when two well-dressed and striking middle aged women walked through the door. An elderly couple sat in silence across from each other against an inky window; a worn looking father took the icecream from his own sundae and added it to his young son's; a young woman sat alone and straight-backed in the further booth. She didn't look up as the two women approached.

"In all of New York City, you wanted to meet here?" said the elder of the women as she lowered herself into the booth. The young woman looked unsurprised by their arrival or the lack of greeting.

" _You_ wanted me to live in the mortal world," she said, unsmiling. "This is how mortals live. I'm sorry it doesn't meet with your standards, mother."

The elder woman pursed her lips. "What name have you taken?"

The young woman brushed a lock of brilliant auburn hair behind her ear.

"Nicole," she replied.

"Good. Unassuming. I see that you've taken that approach with your appearance as well."

Annoyed, Nicole studied the chipped surface of the table for a moment. When she looked up again, she'd veiled the anger from her eyes.

"It's been a long time since I've seen you, Aunt Amriel," she greeted the other woman who had remained standing. Amriel seemed acutely uncomfortable, fixing her collar every couple of minutes and glancing at the other diners suspiciously.

"They won't be listening," Nicole reassured her, reading her mind. "That's the beauty of this city, no one notices anyone but themselves."

"How human," Amriel murmured. "Laylah, please, make this quick."

Laylah appeared to ignore her sister. She fixed her keen eyes on her youngest child.

"You'll have to be more careful in Purgatory," she said. "You won't be anonymous or invisible there."

Nicole looked up sharply. She shoulders tensed at the name of the town.

"I'm to go then?"

Laylah inclined her head. "There's trouble building for the Sanctuary. We need everyone to do their bit to protect the Triangle."

Nicole looked down, buying herself time to mull over the information. She wasn't enthusiastic about leaving the bustle and colour of New York City for a tiny, country town in the middle of a power struggle. Her year in the city had given her challenges of navigating the subway and encountering rude people, she wasn't sure she was ready to give those up for a spiritual battlefield.

"What am I to do?" she asked eventually, knowing that regardless of how she felt, the choice was far from hers. She was used to being a pawn on a cosmic chessboard with as little power as the mortals that sat around them. She'd been surprised to learn how fervently they entertained the notion that supreme beings governered their world – call it God, Krishna, Allah, Elohim, Nirankar or a myriad of others. She'd been able to understand why they sought that comfort, given the idea that the universe was whirling like a spinning top balanced precariously on the edge of the abyss was a truly terrifying one, and she envied them that ignorance. Contrary to the representations she'd seen during her time in the mortal world, angels were as powerless as humans. Nicole didn't answer to an all-knowing being, just her parents, her community and their purpose of keeping the scale of the universe balanced. And sometimes it sucked.

Laylah hesitated before answering her question and that made Nicole's skin prickle with apprehension. Her mother never hesitated, and that was how she knew that she was no longer relegated to mundane protections.

It was Amriel that eventually answered.

"It's Samael," she said simply. Her cheekbones appeared jagged as she pursed her lips in anger. Nicole waited, knowing there was much more. Samael had been Amriel's partner, until he had been tempted by the allure of power and fallen three centuries ago.

Laylah placed a calming hand on her sister's elbow.

"Samael started a chain of events in motion 180 years ago when he and _that witch_ laid the curse on Wyatt Earp and the Sanctuary. It has been contained for almost two centuries and has given us no significant need for concern."

"Of course," Nicole commented dryly. This was a bedtime story to her, not news. And the fact that there had been no concern for the lives lost during the curse, as long as the precious balance was maintained, was not news either.

Her mother gave her a sharp look but ignored her insolence. "There is a greater threat rising than we could ever have predicted."

"And what am I to do about it?" Nicole asked sarcastically. She was an infant in the hierarchy of angels and she had no talent or desire to be a Power, a warrior angel.

"You're to do your job," Laylah snapped, irritation slipping through her façade. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "This is very serious, Neriah. There is a fledgling in the Sanctuary who has the power to combat this threat, but she is vulnerable and ignorant. She needs a guide and a protector until she is strong enough to embrace her power and use it against the darkness."

"So she's my charge?" Nicole said. For the first time her stomach gave a little flutter of anxiety. This wasn't going to be as simple as guiding an eighteen year old towards the college course that would lead them to a life of fulfillment.

"Yes," Laylah said. "And she's to be protected at all costs. She might be our only hope."

"Why me?" Nicole asked, the obvious question. Laylah and Amriel exchanged a cryptic glance.

"You have more potential with this charge than any of us," Laylah said eventually, typically and annoyingly vague. Nicole rolled her eyes and nodded.

"So when do I leave? And who am I to guard?"

Laylah gave a small smile but it didn't reach her eyes, they never did.

"You're to go to Purgatory today. And you're to guard Waverly Earp."


	2. A Cop Walks into a Bar

**A/N: Thanks for the feedback on the first chapter. And how was that finale? Wow! I'd been hesitant to begin uploading this story, afraid that new episodes would destroy its plausibility, but everything from the whirlwind of an episode just gave me so much motivation and inspiration and now I'm so excited to show you all this story. For the first time in my writing life I've actually written the ending before anything else and I enjoyed it so much, so guaranteed I want to keep posting till we get there.**

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Nicole was sitting in her car, staring at the open door of Shorty's bar. She was trying to summon the courage to actually start her task. She had seen Waverly Earp within two days if arriving in Purgatory but it had taken her almost two more weeks to get to this point. It had taken most of that time to make her head stop spinning. There was a reason that living angels usually did not stay long within the Triangle. She had expected the Sanctuary to be an assault on her senses, but she hadn't been prepared for the constant buzzing in the back of her mind that reminded her of the thousands of angelic souls that were protected in their afterlife within the boundaries.

To top it off, she knew that once she introduced herself to Waverly there would be no pretending she didn't actually have a job to do.

With a resigned sigh she climbed out of her cruiser and entered the smoky darkness of the bar. Once her eyes adjusted to the dimness, she was met with the sight of Waverly Earp frantically batting at the beer tap while it stubbornly sprayed liquid all over her. She swore and gave the tap a hard smack which seemed to subdue it. Nicole couldn't help but grin as she walked down the three steps into the bar.

"I didn't know Shorty's had wet t-shirt competitions," she teased, unable to hide her laughter at the flustered expression that Waverly wore. She walked up to the bar. "You okay?"

Waverly Earp smiled and Nicole felt her heart stop. It was an awful cliché but it was exactly what it felt like as her lungs suddenly emptied of air and her chest tightened.

"Yeah," Waverly replied, sheepishly, completely unaware of the effect she'd had on Nicole, which only made it all the more adorable. "I'm just a bit jumpy. Had a _crazy_ night."

She picked up a towel from the bar and began to pat herself down. Nicole tried not to let her gaze drift to where the top buttons of Waverly's shirt had popped open, revealing a sliver of pale, lacy bra.

She tried to cover her embarrassment with a smile. "Sorry I wasn't here to see it," she said, placing her hat on the bar. She gave Waverly another broad smile. Perhaps it wasn't going to be difficult to weave her way into Waverly's life by pretending to like her. When she'd heard from people that Waverly Earp was the darling of the town – beautiful and cute at the same time, kind, compassionate, generous, smart and talented – she'd had her pegged as one of those irritating girls that everyone had hated because they were just so _sickeningly_ perfect. But the girl standing in front of her, flicking her hair over one shoulder while sighing at the beer that was gradually making her white cameo go see-through, wasn't perfect. She was mumbling and awkward and uncoordinated and absolutely stunning.

Nicole cleared her throat, aware that her gaze had drifted again and that she'd probably been staring in silence for too long. She held out her hand. "I've been, ah, meaning to introduce myself. I'm Nicole, Nicole Haught."

When Waverly took her hand, her fingers were long and slender. Nicole thought she'd probably be a really good pianist. Waverly gave a shy smile that was deadly.

"Hi," she said awkwardly.

Nicole blinked. "And you're Waverly Earp," she said and then immediately cringed and the embarrassing stupidity of the sentence. Waverly didn't seem to notice or mind because she gave another little smile, her head tilting.

"Yes," she said as if she was admitting to a crime.

"You're quite a popular girl around here," Nicole said quickly.

Waverly's response was an embodiment of the awkwardness that Nicole felt.

"Oh you know, it's all in the smile and wave," she said, giving an example that made Nicole smile despite herself. She glanced down self-consciously and when she looked back up she found herself caught in the largest, doe-like eyes she'd ever seen. Stunned, every word she knew flew out of her head and her mouth opened and closed like a goldfish.

Somehow she managed to break away and her brain flickered back into life.

"Ah," she said, covering, "Can I get a cappuccino to go?" She didn't drink coffee but her gaze had settled on the coffee machine and it was all she'd been able to think of.

"Oh, I'm really sorry, we're not actually open yet so…"

Nicole glanced around at the deserted bar, chairs still sitting on tables. Stupid. She'd had a cover story for walking into the bar, she'd just completely forgotten what it was.

"Oh, right," she said, hiding her embarrassment with a laugh. She held her hands up in mock-surrender. "My bad. It's just when I see something I like, I don't wanna wait."

She clamped her lips together, hoping that nothing else would escape. Why had she said that? Oh God. She sincerely hoped that her father wasn't sensing her right now because she was acting as if she'd never talked to a mortal in her life.

Waverly froze with the towel pressed to her chest. She looked up, eyes wide with surprise. Great. She'd blown it and frightened her. She could feel her chances of developing a strong enough relationship with Waverly Earp to carry out her task flying out the window.

"And your door was open," she added, pointing like an idiot at the open door as if that could explain this entire train wreck of an encounter.

"Right," Waverly said, sounding unsure. She shook her head and flung the towel down. "God I'm sopping wet. You know I keep telling Shorty he needs to fix the darn taps"

Nicole laughed, relieved to change the topic.

Waverly waved her hands awkwardly in the air. "Sorry," she mumbled, "do you mind just…?" It took Nicole a few seconds to realize that the wild movements of her hands were miming turning around and covering her eyes.

"Oh! Yeah, sorry," she said. She spun on the chair and fixed her eyes on the door. She was glad for the moment of privacy where she could allow her mortification to show. She stopped herself just short of dropping her head into her hands. She heard a muttered grunt behind her and wondered what on earth Waverly was doing.

"Oh," Waverly muttered. "Oh crap. Ah, Officer? I'm stuck."

Nicole frowned and then carefully turned around. Waverly was standing with her back to her, arms and hair and cameo a tangled mess above her head. She looked ridiculous and gorgeous. The temptation of lace that Nicole had spotted minutes ago was now revealed as a delicate bra that could have made a coma patient go weak at the knees.

"Oh jeez," Nicole said, dragging her attention away and jumping up from her stool. She rushed to Waverly's side to help. "Here, let me help you. I gotcha."

Laughing, she wrestled the shirt away from Waverly, a cascade of hair falling back down. Waverly's shampoo smelled of grapefruit.

"Oh God. Good job you're not some guy, right?" Waverly began, tucking her hair behind her ear and grinning sheepishly. "This would have been really, really awkward."

They were chest to chest and in a heartbeat Nicole became aware of every millimeter of space between them and the warmth radiating from Waverly's skin; not just the physical sensations of a warm blooded creature but the warmth of her spirit that told stories of buying groceries for elderly ladies; taking on a shift at Shorty's for a friend even when she was wrecked; helping children with their homework; sending love out into the world and not expecting any in return. This last one made Nicole's heart flutter as she tasted the sorrow and the loneliness. Being able to sense the spirit that lay within others was a blessing in so many ways but it wasn't easy channeling the good and the bad in everyone around her.

She met Waverly's gaze and knew that she had found a very special mortal indeed. Nicole smiled as she felt the purity of Waverly's soul wash over her senses. She ducked her eyes but was drawn back to the creature in front of her within a second.

Clutching the shirt to her chest in an adorable attempt at modesty, Waverly struggled to find words. Nicole, too, became aware that a possibly painful amount of time had passed as they grinned at each other.

"Um, I…" Waverly stuttered, "I-I owe you one."

Nicole felt a pulse of something dark – someone passing on the street or working out the back perhaps – and she was instantly pulled back to her purpose for being at Shorty's. She licked her lips, trying to regain her balance. She was here to…to meet Waverly Earp. And to find a way into her life. Right.

"Alright then," she said quickly, "Well how about you buy me that cup of coffee? How about tonight?" She tilted her head, a nervous habit that had always been her most annoying tell.

Waverly seemed even more flustered and Nicole thanked the universe for her angelic gift of charisma. Otherwise she'd been an even worse mumbling mess than Waverly.

"Oh, I can't," Waverly replied, too quickly. "I mean, I'd love to – like, like to, uh…but I have plans. Yeah. I'm a planner." Her sentence dissolved into a nervous giggle that almost had Nicole cringing. She still couldn't quite align the prom queen image that the townspeople had painted of Waverly and the awkward, mumbling girl in front of her. Nicole didn't say anything and Waverly just kept on rambling.

"I like to know what I'm doing at least two…or three days in advance." Suddenly she shook her head as if trying to break herself out of a spell. Her eyes snapped to Nicole's.

"I'm in a relationship," she said, so unexpected that Nicole withdrew. Her mouth fell open a little, shocked that Waverly had interpreted this as an invitation for a date. Then again, didn't she want that? Nicole frowned slightly.

"...with a boy. Man!" Waverly finished.

The ending caused Nicole to dissolve into laughter again despite her internal confusion. She nodded, smirking.

"A boy-man?" she clarified. She turned away, reluctant to leave the warmth that radiated from Waverly but knowing that one of them was going to spontaneously combust with embarrassment if this conversation continued much longer. "Yep. I've been there."

She hadn't, of course, not in a relationship way. Her brother could definitely be described as a boy-man, as could some of the men she'd met in the previous year in New York City. But she'd never dated a boy or man or boy-man. Mind you, she'd never dated a girl, woman or girl-woman either.

She turned her back to Waverly, certain that her lie would be visible on her face even through the smile that lingered there.

"Okay," she said, shrugging with dedicated casualness. She picked up her hat from the bar and then wondered if she should leave it behind so she had an excuse to come back. Too late, she'd picked it up. On a whim, she reached into her pocket and pulled out of of the little cards they'd given her at the station. She tossed it down onto the bar. It may not give her an excuse to come back, but hopefully it would give Waverly the excuse to call.

"Well, some other time," she said, noticing the steps right before she almost fell up them. At the top she turned back to the bar and saw that Waverly was still standing there in her bra, clutching the top to her chest. Even the smallest of smiles made her light up.

"I mean it," Nicole added daringly before turning and walking out before either of them could do more damage to the story of their first encounter.


	3. A Man Stands in the Road

Waverly Earp was smiling from her front porch. It was hard for Nicole to drag herself away from the sight and climb into the car. As they pulled away from the Earp homestead, Wynonna a dark and brooding presence in the passenger seat, Nicole replayed the smile a dozen times in her head. She was in trouble. She wasn't supposed to think about a charge in the way she thought about Waverly Earp. She just prayed that everyone was too busy with the demonic plague descending upon the Sanctuary to be tuned into her feelings. It had been over a week since she'd had any contact with her own kind and she wasn't quite sure what she was going to tell them when they next appeared. She wasn't a good enough liar to hide the strength of attachment that was beginning to form, and she wasn't sure she entirely wanted to.

"You're awful quiet for someone who wants answers," Wynonna said suddenly, jolting Nicole out of her thoughts. Her hands tightened on the steering wheel, startled to be caught in the depth of her thoughts of Waverly. She was grateful that telepathy wasn't an Earp heir gift. Nicole cleared her throat.

"I can't make you tell me," she replied. The relief she'd felt when Wynonna had said she'd tell her the truth about Purgatory had been palpable. If she could officially know about demons and angels and curses and heirs, then she could talk so much more openly with Waverly. It was dreadful, every time she met Waverly's eyes, to know she was so deeply and awfully lying to her.

Wynonna sighed deeply. She hitched her foot up on the dashboard and leaned on one knee, staring sullenly out the window. Nicole glanced across at her and thought, not for the first time, how different she was to her sister. The sense that Nicole got from Wynonna was a confusing one. There was goodness and evil and hurt and love and madness all tangled together and Nicole had never met someone with such a complex spirit.

"I don't even know where to begin, really," Wynonna said as Nicole looked back at the road.

"How 'bout you start with your job," Nicole prodded. "What do you and Dolls really do?"

Wynonna narrowed her eyes. "I guess you could say we do the same as you but on a slightly more….supernatural level."

Nicole's heart jumped. She was getting the answers she'd been pushing and prodding for and she was so close. She took a steadying breath, wary of scaring Wynonna out of her candor by being too eager.

"Supernatural…?" she said, glancing again at Wynonna.

"Not like vampires and werewolves and crap," Wynonna said firmly and then she pulled back. "At least I don't think so. God, I hope not." She gave her head a shake. "But like…demons."

She paused and Nicole could feel her gaze keen upon her, waiting for a reaction. She wondered what an appropriate mortal reaction to this information would be. Would they be dismissive? Should she laugh? Or would they be freaked out? She recalled that the reason Wynonna had been sent to a psychiatric facility as a teenager was because of talk about demons, so clearly the average mortal wouldn't be accepting of the idea. She schooled her expression into one of mild disbelief and kept her eyes on the road.

"Demons? You mean the devil?"

Wynonna shrugged. "I don't know about the devil," she said. "But my daddy called them Revenants. They're the men and women that Wyatt Earp shot with Peacemaker, and when a witch put a curse on him and all his descendents, we ended up with them bobbing back and forth between hell and Purgatory like they're apples in a barrel."

Nicole gave a careful nod. She wondered whether Wynonna was telling her everything or if the skeleton of the story was really all she knew.

"What's that?" Wynonna said, interrupting the conversation. Nicole had spotted it too, a figure standing in the middle of the road ahead. She felt her senses prickle as the car slowed and pulled to a halt in front of the man standing firm. She glanced at Wynonna but she seemed equally unsure and edgy. Her hand went to the gun at her hip.

"Stay here," Nicole said. Naturally, Wynonna ignored her and the passenger door opened at the same time as her own. Her boots crunched on fresh snow as she stepped out into the road.

"Sir?" she called, studying the man's face for signs of allegiance. She was definitely getting a dark sense from him but with Wynonna's so close by she was struggling to read if it was demonic evil or just asshole evil. Gingerly she stepped toward the man who still hadn't moved.

"Sir, do you need help?"

"Well," he said, his voice dark and gravelly. He looked up and smiled and his eyes glowed red. "I reckon I do."

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The concept of a hospital was strange to her. Before she'd been assigned to the mortal world, illness and injury had been foreign concepts and she still didn't fully understand how people could make their job out of 'fixing' other people. But for the first time she understood pain. Oh God did she understand pain.

Even with something dripping into her veins from a skinny tube that made her head feel fuzzy, the pain in her chest and her head was excruciating. And it definitely didn't help that she could also sense the pain of the patients in the surrounding rooms. Her leg ached in sympathy with the man in the room to the right and her back seared with pain from the woman on the left.

The medicine made her careless with her words but thankfully the nurses didn't seem concerned by her talk of phantom pain and evil spirits.

She'd finally been left alone and was trying to sort out reality from fantasy in her head when she became aware of voices in the corridor outside. Through the half open door she could see Nedley talking to Dolls. But it was the slight brunette with her arm in a sling that hovered in the background which really caught her attention.

"I'm good," she said, interrupting the conversation outside that was being held as if she were brain-dead and unable to think for herself. "I wanna help."

Wynonna. That's why they were there. She'd been in the car with Wynonna, talking, about…? Their jobs? The memory was so blurred, like seeing the shape of something at the bottom of a frozen lake.

"Well, I'll swing by and make sure that cat of yours is fed," the Sherriff said with surprising gentleness. Nicole still wasn't sure what to make of him. She read plenty of kindness in his spirit but there was the edge of something dark, the promise of secrets and the certainty of lies that made her a little bit wary.

She could imagine him bumbling into her tiny apartment and the cat, which had adopted her the second day she'd arrived in Purgatory, flying for cover under her bed. It always fled whenever men came to the door. She had a sneaky suspicion that there was something supernatural about the feline, but her ability to read didn't extend to animals. Thank God, or the spirit of every snail and earthworm in Purgatory would be added to the existing cacophony on her head.

"She doesn't really like men," she replied, but grateful nonetheless for his thoughtfulness. She didn't want to go home to the starved corpse of a cat in her living room.

"Well, who does?" Nedley said in a comment that caught her by surprise. She watched him exit, more amused than alarmed by his apparent suspicions thanks to the substance slipping into her bloodstream.

"So what was the last thing you saw?"

She pulled her attention away from her sluggish thoughts and focused on the Deputy Special Agent that stood in front of her with his notepad flipped open like he was an Old Hollywood Cop. Her gaze drifted past him to where Waverly had entered the room and her senses were suddenly full of nothing but her. There was so much fear and anxiety swirling around inside of her. It made Nicole's heart clench.

"Waverly Earp smilin' at me from her from her front porch," she said before she could stop the words from slipping into reality. She realized her mistake as soon as she'd spoken and the sharp look from Dolls was unnecessary. She pulled her eyes away from Waverly and tried to focus on the memory.

"And, ah, a man steppin' out on the highway. Flagging us down."

She could see him standing in the middle of the road but his face…there was nothing.

"Description?" Dolls asked curtly.

"No," Nicole sighed, frustrated at herself. She'd been so distracted. How could she have put herself in this position? What if she'd jeopardized everything? Her family would be able to sense what had happened, before long she could expect a visit demanding answers, guaranteed. She was supposed to be a guardian, a protector, a wise one, but here she was looking and sounding nothing more than a stupid mortal victim while her charge stood before her physically injured and mentally tormented by the thought of her missing sister.

"It's a blank space after that, until the woods."

She tried to make her brain work but there was nothing there. She could see the man standing there, she got out of her car. And then she could smell pine leaves and hear the crunch of boots on snow.

"So, ah, what happened?" Dolls said, not even trying to hide his own frustration.

Nicole remembered a swaying sensation and cold fingers against her body. It made her skin crawl just to remember it.

"Someone was carryin' me. I was blindfolded I think…or just really drugged. Next thing I know is I'm freezing cold, covered in dirt in a ditch by the side of the road."

She was so angry, too angry to realize that it actually came from a place of fear. Now she could understand why mortals clung to the idea of gods. She'd never known what true powerlessness felt like until she'd been lying there, not knowing if she was going to be allowed to live or die.

Dolls was staring at her with a frightening intensity. "Do you remember _anything_ about Wynonna?"

She wished she could say yes, for Waverly's sake. She was shifting from foot to foot, agitated and frightened in the doorway, wanting to come forwards but afraid, so afraid. She was screaming with loneliness and the same powerlessness that had confronted Nicole. She wanted to badly to reach out and share the burden.

"No," she replied, furious. "I couldn't see anything."

In both senses of the word. She had no memory of the physical or the spirit. Whatever it was that had happened had to be demon related, but she had no memory of sensing danger or darkness. What good was she?

For the first time the man who'd introduced himself to her several weeks ago as Henry, spoke. He was another one she couldn't read well. So much anger and regret in one man she thought it impossible that he was only human, yet he was neither a demon nor an angel.

"Sight ain't your only sense, Miss Haught," he said as if he could read her mind. She looked at him sharply but there was no sign on his face that he knew of her true nature. He looked concerned, just like everyone else in the room. He stepped closer "What'd he smell like?"

Relieved and confused, Nicole shook her head. Henry closed his eyes.

"Close your eyes, just take a deep breath, let the memories come."

Unconvinced but willing to try anything, she did as he instructed. In the darkness she saw the glow of two red eyes. And then it hit her, the smell as she was carried by ice cold hands.

"Sour. Musty," she murmured, thinking out loud.

"Like death?" Dolls said quickly. There was no time to wonder why he knew what death smelled like.

"No," Nicole said, frowning, trying to place the scent. "Like…spoiled fruit. And gasoline. He kicked me."

She remembered the blast of sharp pain in her chest and lying on her back; the sky was cresting dawn above her.

"See I couldn't figure out why my chest was hurtin'. He threw me down and he said 'You're the wrong kind'."

Dolls latched onto the words. His mind turning them over was almost visible as he tapped his pen on his pad.

"Serial killers, they often have a type," he said to no one in particular. "A victim that they prefer."

"And Wynonna?" Waverly said fearfully, speaking for the first time. She was staring at Dolls with a pleading expression. He grimaced.

"She just be exactly what Jack is looking for."

The pain that broke outwards from Waverly caused tears to spring to Nicole's eyes. She couldn't bear to feel the scream of terrified panic that was roaring in Waverly's mind. Nicole felt as if she herself were losing the only lifeline that had ever shown her love.

"Waverly, I'm _so_ sorry," she said helplessly her voice thick with tears.

Waverly shook her head, the emotions mirrored.

"It's fine," she said though internally she was sobbing. "I'm just glad you're okay."

She turned and fled but Nicole could feel her agony all the way down the corridor. She clenched her bandaged hand, not even noticing the ache as the wound re-opened.

One by one and without a word everyone fled the room and Nicole was left with the echoes of Waverly's pain tangled around her own.

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 **A/N: Thanks for reading everyone! So far this is keeping to script but soon enough we'll have to take a wander into the unknown. How thrilling!**

 **For those of you wondering, the angel lore and the circumstances around Purgatory will be made clearer throughout the story. Don't want to give you everything at once now do I? There would be absolutely no fun in that.**

 **But in the meantime, I'd love to hear any speculation. What do you think Waverly will say when she finds out Nicole is an angel? And that she was sent there to befriend her?**


	4. A Woman Starts a Conversation

**A/N: This story (about 15 chapters) is completely plotted and half written, so my mission is to get the entire thing uploaded before the new season of Wynonna Earp airs. Send me motivational vibes dear readers, I'll need all the help I can get.**

 **Hope you enjoy this latest chapter at long last.**

 **\- Lu**

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The doctors didn't have an explanation for Nicole's amazing recovery time. She just shrugged and smiled and mumbled something about good genes. She was discharged from the hospital within a couple of days with ribs that were almost entirely healed and only the slightest reminder of a headache. For their sake, she pretended to be more pained than she really was, because she could see someone of the doctors doubting the very ground they stood on as she walked through the hospital doors. She hadn't heard from Waverly or Wynonna but Nedley had been by and filled her in on the situation. She could sense, even from town, that Waverly was worrying herself sick about her sister.

She spent two days of forced leave sitting in her apartment and wrestling with the idea of telling Waverly everything. The falsehood of their entire relationship was killing her. Every time she thought of Waverly her heart gave a little flutter but was shortly followed by a sinking sensation of guilt.

She decided that, one way or another, she needed to find a way to tell Waverly the truth.

As if conjured by her very thoughts, she almost crashed into Waverly as she exited the station the following morning. They both jumped backwards as if afraid they'd receive an electric shock.

"Whoa," Waverly said laughing awkwardly, "Where's the hold-up?"

Still fixated on a way to force the truth from Waverly, Nicole didn't actually hear anything she said. She was staring at Waverly, suddenly terrified of the truth.

"Yeah," Waverly muttered, her cheeks flushing, "Coz, you're a cop?" She mimed a hold up.

Nicole shook herself. "Right, sorry." Completely abandoning niceties, she grabbed Waverly by the arm and steered her away from the station, dropping her head and her voice. "Um, can we talk?"

"Yeah, yeah, God, we're totally overdue," Waverly said eagerly.

"Good," Nicole sighed with relief, suddenly light headed with the thought of not having to lie. She cleared her throat nervously as they stepped off the curb. Her thoughts were flying; she couldn't pin down the best way to start this conversation.

 **"** I'm not…I'm not crazy, right?" she said conspiratorially, glancing around. "There's something going on here?"

Waverly exhaled with a similar sense of relief and Nicole tried not to be too hopeful.

"No, you're not crazy."

"Okay," Nicole sighed, nodding encouragingly.

"Well, I'm not sure I'm really ready to…get into it," Waverly said, her hands flying around like Nicole realized now they always did when she was nervous.

Nicole stared at her wide eyed and innocent. "Why?"

"Because it's different for me, right? And, you know, it's really personal."

Nicole shook her head. "But it's personal for everybody, right? I mean, they must know, people must whisper about it?" She reigned in the impatience that was beginning to show in her voice. She was so close, she could feel it, but she didn't want to push Waverly too hard. Of course she was wary of talking about it; her sister had been locked in a mental asylum for talking about demons.

"Oh God, I hope not!" Waverly exclaimed, horrified. "No, I kind of only just discovered it when…I met you."

Now Nicole was genuinely confused. She started, a deep frown crossing her face. "Me?"

Then a thought hit her, oh God what if Waverly already knew? What if she knew that Nicole had been lying to her this whole time?

"Yeah," Waverly mumbled shyly, "You're kind of…special."

She didn't sound angry that she'd been lied to or suspicious that Nicole wasn't entirely human, so that was a plus. Nicole stopped walking, trying to steady the pounding in her chest. She tried to find words.

"Oh, okay," Nicole stuttered. "Ah, I might be a bit more open minded but it's not like I have some mystical gift or something!" She sounded way too defensive. She took a deep breath as Waverly turned to face her.

"No, I get it," Waverly said. She was smiling. Was that good or bad? "You're a lesbian not a unicorn, right?"

"What?" Nicole exclaimed, beyond confused now. She stared at Waverly, trying hard to read any anger or resentment in her spirit, but finding nothing. She shook her head, trying to speak.

"What?" Waverly replied instantly, her face falling. She searched Nicole's eyes as if she hadn't expected such a negative reaction.

"You're…you're making fun of me?" Nicole hesitated.

"No!" Waverly replied, looking confused and stricken. "Sorry, don't you want to talk?"

Nicole shook her head in frustration. She wanted Waverley to tell her the truth! She wanted to stop lying and pretending as if she knew nothing about the evil that Waverly was facing day in day out. But they were getting nowhere.

Nicole sighed and looked away. "I want the truth," she said simply. She locked eyes with Waverly for a heartbeat, silently begging her for all the answers. She was met with a blank stare. With an even deeper sigh, Nicole weaved around Waverly and stormed off down the street.

* * *

Three hours later and Nicole was sitting at her desk, staring at a half-full cup of coffee and replaying the conversation over in her head. She kept coming back to Waverly's face, the hope and innocence that had fallen faster than a winter night. As she replayed every word from Waverley's mouth, her heart sunk even further. Waverly hadn't ever wanted to talk about the demons. She'd wanted to talk about… _them_. But Nicole didn't know what that meant. What were they?

Slamming shut the report that she hadn't even begun to read, she tossed her coffee cup in the bin and walked out of the station. It wasn't hard to find Waverly. She could sense her frustration from the other side of town. She followed the trail of tumultuous feelings till she spotted the hunched figure trudging stubbornly along the icy verge at the side of the road. She was close to the edge of the Sanctuary. Nicole could feel the uncomfortable prickle of the border as she pulled the car to a slow crawl beside Waverly.

"Waverly, what are you doin'? she called to the woman that made no sign of noticing the car.

"Being alone," Waverly snapped back, crossing her arms across her chest. She was clearly freezing but far too stubborn to admit it. Nicole rolled her eyes. "I want to be alone." Now Waverly just sounded like a petulant child.

"Alright. Well, you've reached the edge of town so any further out and you're going to freeze to death." She tried to sound joking but she was deadly serious. She didn't know what would happen if Waverly crossed the border of the Sanctuary – no one had bothered to tell her that – but she didn't want to find out if it was a bad idea.

The sound of boots crunching on snow answered her. Waverly's spirit trembled with pent up emotion.

"Get in the car," Nicole ordered.

"No thank you."

"I got a tazer, don't make me use it," she said in the same tone as before. She was only half-joking. Twenty more steps and Waverly would be at the border. Nicole could feel it ahead, buzzing in her senses like an electric fence.

To her relief, Waverly stopped walking. Nicole pulled the car to the side of the road and a moment later the door slammed and the cab was flooded with Waverly's jumbled emotions as she slumped into the passenger seat.

The silence stretched between them, as tangible as the icy air and the now-familiar scent of grapefruit.

"Okay," Nicole conceded at last. "I'll start. I'm sorry for being such an asshole before."

Waverly stared resentfully out the windscreen.

"First you want to talk, then you don't want to talk, then you tell me to talk, so…talk…"

Anger flared hot and searing in the confined space. Nicole was startled, she'd picked up dozens of emotions from Waverly but she was surprised anger was so dominant. She took a deep breath, trying to rid herself of Waverly's anger.

"Okay, well maybe we should figure out what exactly it is that we're talking about," she ventured, frowning.

"Gus is selling Shorty's," Waverly burst out before Nicole had barely finished talking. "She acts like she won't but she is. And everything's changing around me but it's all too fast, you know! And it's like, no one ever asks me if I'm okay with it. It's like could everybody just stand still for one frickin' minute!"

Waverly let out a breath and thudded her head against the headrest, defeated. Nicole stared at her, at a loss for what to say. She wanted the truth from Waverly, but there was so much more happening in Waverly's life than just the demons. Just because Nicole's whole world revolved around it, didn't mean Waverly's did. And she was so lonely. Nicole could feel it as an ache in her own chest. Waverly felt so alone, so scared, so lost.

"It's going to be okay," she said softly, placing her hand on Waverly's without thinking. Waverly's gaze hovered on their hands and then swung suspiciously to Nicole. Embarrassed, Nicole pulled back and looked out the windscreen.

"I just screamed at you, you shouldn't be nice to me," Waverly said, as if she was angry for the kindness.

The absurdity of her words caused Nicole to shake her head. "Yeah well I think you've just been dating too many shitheads," she commented dryly, conjuring an image of the hellscum Champ.

"We're not dating!" Waverly snapped, her eyes blazing defensively.

Awkward, Nicole glanced at her. "I know," she said softly. Sighing, she sat up straight. "God, Waverly, I would never ask you to be someone you're not." She couldn't help but channel the alarm that was pounding in Waverly's chest.

"Good!" Waverly snapped, not looking at her. "Just don't ask me to be anyone at all!"

"Fine!" Nicole shot back, the word heavy with anger that coursed from Waverly.

"Fine."

The air between them crackled with tension as they fell silent. Nicole glanced at Waverly but she didn't know what to say. They were both angry, they were both confused about the power of what they felt. They were both weighed down by too many secrets and too much responsibility.

"Well," Waverly said at last, "Maybe just friends?"

Nicole huffed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure Waverly, whatever you want."

Without waiting for a reply she started the car and pulled around, heading back towards town. She didn't say another word as they drove, she couldn't trust the emotions she was feeling or the ones that were pulsing from Waverly like a beacon. What a mess.


End file.
